5 players in the last decade who should have won the Ballon d'Or but did not

The Ballon d’Or is an award given for individual performances over a calendar year. It is easily the most prestigious individual award in football and over the years many famous players have won the award. In 2009 the award was renamed as the FIFA Ballon d’Or after merging it with the FIFA Player of the year award.Every year after the announcement of the results there are questions raised as to whether the player deserved the award ahead of some of the other contenders. Here are five such contenders who deserved to win the Ballon d’Or in the last decade but didn’t. 

#1 Thierry Henry 2004

The former French striker and Arsenal legend had guided his club through an impressive league season in 2003-04 at the end of which Arsenal won the league title without losing a single game. This was the first time an English club managed to achieve this feat in over a century.

Henry had scored 46 goals in 2004 of which 43 were for Arsenal. He was also the winner of the European Golden Boot for the 2003-04 season and had won the PFA Player of the year award as well. Arsenal also managed to win the FA Community shield in 2004 after beating Manchester United.

He was once again considered to be a front runner for the Ballon d’Or award that season but eventually lost to Andriy Shevchenko. Shevcheko had also won the league title and the Super Cup with AC Milan in 2004, but his goal scoring record was inferior to Henry’s.

One can only wonder if Henry’s failure to help France defend their Euro title in 2004 was one of the reasons he missed out on the award. More surprisingly Henry came 4th in the voting behind Shevhenko, Deco and Ronaldinho.